From the Barefoot Files...

Today -- the vintage photo is my great grandfather. George Walter King has appeared on the blog before. He was on the left -- the old gentleman -- in the photo showing Stafford Springs. His amnesty paper from the Civil War was also featured in another post.

Here he is again. I chose his photo today since his birthday is just around the corner. He was born in 1834 and died in 1914. He was 69 years old when his last child, my grandfather, was born. He and my great grandmother were married in 1878.

I just looked that info up in my family tree. Like many people interested in genealogy, I have an Ancestry account. Funny thing I found today -- when I looked up George -- there was a hint for him today. So I clicked that little leaf (have you all seen those commercials about clicking the leaves?). Anyway -- it was nothing -- it just let me know that he appears in someone else's family tree. Me being curious -- I looked it up and there is the photo I uploaded for my tree! Someone lifted my family photo for their tree. Can people do this? Does Ancestry.com condone taking photos from another person's account without seeking permission? I need to look into this.

A Walk in the Woods...

Yesterday my husband came in and said, "get your camera." There are some interesting ice formations in the dirt out in the yard. I got my camera. They are interesting -- but I did not get a good shot of them.

It had been a while since I was out in the yard without Sadie and with the camera. So I went into the woods. At the base of a few trees I saw an interesting green leaf poking through the layer of dead, brown leaves. At first I was very excited thinking I had found a Lady Slipper growing wild. But then I realized it was not that plant -- but it is an orchid.

Last night I got on the internet checking the Georgia Native Plant website and consulting my Audubon Southeastern Field Guide. My assessment was that I had found a patch (or three) of Cranefly Orchids. This morning I emailed a photographer friend who knows a lot about woodland plants. She confirmed my find.

The Cranefly Orchid grows a single leaf in September. The leaf is dark green on top and purple underneath. The leaf remains until spring and then it disappears. In late July or August the plant sends up a stalk for the blooms. There are no leaves present when the plant blooms. The photo above shows a dried stalk with seed pods. I found this in the middle of a bunch of leaves. Obviously it was from last summer's blooms.

The photo below shows the leaves mixed in with the brown leaves that cover the woodland floor. They are easy to spot since they are so bright green and nothing else is (well a little moss was here and there).

Nature Undisturbed 2010

I am pleased to announce that the juror for this year's Nature Undisturbed photography exhibit show and sale is Lucinda Bunnen. Last September I had the pleasure to meet and chat with Lucinda for a time at Slow Exposures. I have been a big fan of her work and found her to be a very nice person. I am really looking forward to spending the time with her when she is judging the work in the show. That will be a treat for me.

Here is a little background info on Lucinda. Remember, there is still plenty of time to get your entry in for the show. The deadline is January 30, 2010. The photo on the blog today is one of Lucinda's.

Hatcher's Pond

Lucinda Weil Bunnen is a practicing artist (photographer) living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has traveled worldwide for her work and has had numerous one and two person shows throughout the Southeast. She has also participated in many national, international and regional juried shows such as: “Atlanta Artists in Buenos Aires” in Argentina; “Atlanta in France” in Toulouse, France, “New Southern Photography: Between Myth and Reality” at the Burden Gallery in New York City. Lucinda has been a part of several multi-media exhibitions as well as the subject of a video and the producer of a video. Her work has been reviewed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Her work has been featured in several books and she has also co-authored three books: “Movers and Shakers in Georgia”, 1978, “Scoring in Heaven, Gravestones and Cemetery Art in The American Sunbelt States”, 1990, “ALASKA Trails Tales and Eccentric Detours”, 1992. In 2004, she was the Master Series Artist for the city of Atlanta, and then in 1999, she had a 30-year retrospective and along with it an award-winning catalog. Lucinda won the “Women in the Visual Arts” Award in 1997 and has been listed in Who’s Who in American Art since 1975. She has had radio and television interviews including a piece for National Public Radio and the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Her work can be found in numerous public collections including: Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Russia, The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., The Mint Museum in Charlotte NC, the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. and the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. She has lectured, given workshops and curated exhibitions across the Southeast United States. She was both donor and curator of “Subjective Vision: the Lucinda W. Bunnen Collection of Photographs,” a collection of contemporary photographs assembled for Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. Lucinda has been the curator and judge for numerous organizations for several years.

From the Barefoot Files...

Happy 2010! New Year's Day and vintage photo Friday are the same.

The photo I chose to start off the year is of my Uncle John. I am not sure exactly when this was taken or where. I like the photo of him. His expression and the way he is standing really looks like him. That may sound odd -- but you know how some people never really look like themselves in a photo? Well, this is my Uncle John -- much younger and thinner than I ever remember him.

I like the background too. Barely visible on the window behind him it says "air cooled." When air conditioning was a real selling point -- to just get people in the door. The woman walking is interesting to me too. I like to look at her shoe and wonder what is the place she is entering -- a department store? a theater?

And look at the photographer! Love the camera around his neck. When I zoom in on the photo -- his mouth is wide open. Is he yelling? I don't think so -- his body language suggests perhaps it is just a yawn.